For 2026: Please note that units are considered "under revision" until two weeks before the class date, and page content, web assignments, and exercises may change before that deadline.

Parent's Notes to Unit 35: Introduction to the Study of Science

If you have not already done so, please read the Parent Guide for Natural Science. This page contains information to help you help your student with the material and methods of this course.

Preparation

Students should complete the history and science web lectures and associated web readings from the Homework assignment if at all possible before we meet for the first time in chat.

Below are notes on the main points of each assignment.

• History Web Lecture: Help students identify several scientific issues that have an immediate affect on their own lives. For example, studies of bird use of wetlands could determine local zoning laws, or a medical treatment may save the life of a relative. What scientific issues are involved in the situation -- for example, were observations or experiments performed appropriately to provide data on which a decision was based? What ethical issues are involved?
• Science Web Lecture: Help students identify different situations where the experimental method may not apply to scientific investigation. An example is stellar evolution: we have models and theories about how stars evolve, but no one can pull a star into a lab and experiment on it.

  Please review my science safety information if your student plans to do any experimental work, even if they are not taking the lab option.

• The Moodle Essay: Every unit has a short essay question. Students need to post a complete and concise answer to this essay before the start of the unit discussion session (chat). We look at this question together during chat.

  Encourage your student to start thinking about this essay a few days before chat. Discuss the topic together, and see if you can think of examples to support the position your student takes. A good essay is not a single sentence written five minutes before chat starts!

• Mastery exercise: The exercises questions are designed to help the student articulate his definition of science and identify several common approaches to scientific analysis. Review the exercise questions and be sure that your student understands each question and the feedback. Identify any problems and encourage him to bring them up during our discussion session on Tuesday morning (this means the mastery exercise should be attempted at least once before discussion session).

  The Mastery exercise has no final due date before the end of the semester. This allows students to review it at any time. However, it must be completed with a passing grade of 85% before the student can take the unit quiz, which does have a due date! So encourage your student to complete the mastery completion requirement before the weekend, to give time Monday to take the quiz.

• Discussion: In the introductory section, we will visit the class website and talk about how to find and do the assignments. If you have already done this with your student, it will make the "adminstrivia" part of the session much shorter.

  Our main topic for the morning will be "What is science?" Please encourage your student to think about this question before the class, and be ready to give his definition.

• Quiz: Last week's quiz was really an exercise to help students get used to the way quizzes will be administered, so students could take the Unit 0 quiz multiple times. From now on, students can take a quiz only once during the unit's regular test period. Students who miss a quiz or want to retake a quiz may do so only during the two-week grace period preceding the semester exam.
• Lab: This week's lab is intended to help students see how experience shapes how we observe events, and affects our objectivity. One of the goals of science is to identify and examine phenomena where we can agree on our observations.

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